A Surveillance Society Works Both Ways

[inibo.livejournal.com]

Comments

[mcpreacher.livejournal.com]

so that's, like, the one decent counterthink?

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

oh geez, i made the mistake of looking at the website. who knew that chemo/radiation therapy is evil.

[mcpreacher.livejournal.com]

he's got a hilariously bad one about hpv vaccine and suntan lotion

[inibo.livejournal.com]

Whatever. I never even knew the site existed till today. I just liked the cartoon.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

UNACCEPTABLE

[the-hamburglar.livejournal.com]

BEAR BLASTING

[dearmisterecho.livejournal.com]

love this!

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

It's funny because the citizens are drawn with eyes that look just as menacing as the government, which doesn't really make me feel that much better.

[inibo.livejournal.com]

As long as you aren't the government you shouldn't feel menaced.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. ~Thomas Jefferson

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

Menace is menace. I have little reason to believe people are magically mean when in positions of government and magically nice when not.

[inibo.livejournal.com]

True, people are people, but the bad people in government have a standing army to enforce their will.

(http://www.jordanmaxwell.com/articles/pictures/pictures9.html)

[udoswald.livejournal.com]

While the "government types" look stern and serious, the "people" look mischievous and up to no good. I'd be more scared of the angry mob than I'd be of the government types.

[inibo.livejournal.com]

I think the Mafia should reduce it's level of breaking knees and extorting protection money, but then it wouldn't be the Mafia any more, would it?

[roseofjuly.livejournal.com]

I think it's more of a "haha gotcha bitch we're watching you too!" kind of look.

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

Yeah I know I don't trust them only going after the government.

[madscience.livejournal.com]

I've always countered the "If you haven't done anything wrong" argument by saying that when governments go bad, good people have everything to hide. But that second panel makes me think about E. R. Sill's poem The Fool's Prayer. Forget the FBI keeping a dossier of our sins; it's our follies being posted on YouTube that we have to worry about now.

[inibo.livejournal.com]

YouTube isn't going put me in jail or kill me if I happen to have the wrong kind of plant or plant by-product in my pocket.

[madscience.livejournal.com]

No, but it might cost you your job, your relationships, and a lot of other things that matter.

[inibo.livejournal.com]

If these were my only two options I'd prefer public humiliation to a bullet or being buggered by Bubba on a nightly basis.

It seems to me if one avoids doing stupid things in public or acting a fool in front of some friend's camera about 95% of the YouTube threat is avoided. The FBI has the option of kick my door in any time they want.

You seem more frightened by freedom than you are of legal thuggery.

[spaz-own-joo.livejournal.com]

The kind of punishment a government can give you is fundamentally different from the kind of punishment that the spread of information can give you.

If you haven't done anything to betray their employer relationships, personal relationships etc, yet the knowledge of what you've done in public jeopardizes those relationships, then those relationships were probably founded on bogus expectations.

I expect those expectations to change as this collaborative surveillance thing eventually fills every public space. Employers will eventually have to figure out that firing employees for what they do off-duty is not good for the company, because it destroys employee morale and loyalty. Spouses will eventually have to figure out that they both enjoy getting drunk and flirting with a stranger sometimes because it's fun, and that maybe facing that head-on and establishing fair expectations together is healthier than the more usual denial and downplay.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Have you read Earth, by David Brin? Part of the backstory is that civilians tire of the governments of the world having secrets, so essentially, everyone loses privacy so that everything can be known.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Nice. You left off DEA.

[inibo.livejournal.com]

I heard a story on NPR Friday about the Texas Board of Dental Examiners having its own police department. I have to give Texas credit, though, they drew the line at the podiatrists' board. Good lookin' out Gov. Good Hair.

[verytwistedmind.livejournal.com]

Yeah thisi s going in my special folder. Thanks.